Redemption of a Madman
by Lukeyboy1589
Summary: Madanach Hatchet, a purple-clad maniac and former hunter-in-training can't escape his past. After years of running, it catches up to him, but not in the way he would've expected. (my first fanfic, please review, constructive criticism would be very appreciated.)
1. Chapter 1

Madanach Hatchet sat alone in his run-down apartment in the city of Zhao Liang. He was sitting in an old wooden chair, reloading his dust golf club, Fore. He closed the top of the grip and moved the slider on the shaft to each setting, testing to see if the weapon was functioning properly. The club's glow changed color with each setting. Satisfied, he retracted the weapon into his purple tailcoat. He looked out the window, the auroras were out tonight, they seemed to glow brighter than usual.

They lit up the night sky with beautiful colors, even to Madanach, who'd lived there for fifteen years, the aurora's were a captivating sight. Madanach kept his gaze fixed towards the sky, wondering if his old team would enjoy the view. He thought of them everyday, Lydia, Oobleck, and Summer, he missed them dearly. He often wondered what would happen if he'd done things differently, maybe they'd be with him on this night. _Maybe Summer would still be alive. _He thought.

_It's all your fault, you killed her the day you left_. An angry internal voice told him.

_You can't prove that, for all you know, she could be in the same grave under the same gravestone, just marked at an earlier day. _Another voice argued.

_SILENCE, BOTH OF YOU. _Madanach ordered them, they complied.

_You really should not dwell on the past._ Another voice told him.

"I know." he said. _What you did that day was probably the best thing you could've done. _It continued. "Yes, sure, try to make me feel better, that'll work." he mocked the voice. _Hmmph, it seems to work better than what the others do, considering you audibly communicate with me. _Madanach grumbled under his breath.

_It doesn't matter what the others say, what you did was probably for the best. You ran because you cared for those around you, while many may call that an act of cowardice, I call it an act of bravery to leave everything you knew to ensure that they were safer. _"Yeah, sure, doesn't change the facts though." _Hmmph, and what would today's particular fact be?_ "You know, for something that's supposed to be part of my mind, you really don't like to act like it, do you?" _Humor me. _His expression remained deadpan. "That I'm an idiot."

_Believe what you'd like, your past has driven you to do a lot of good things. _"Heh, a little gray to call it good." _Yes, your little vigilante acts can be a little bit shady. _"At least I never killed anybody." _Yeah, that is a plus one on your not-so-great moral standing at least. _It joked."Hey, I'm not that bad." he laughed._ Was shooting at the last guy's feet yelling, "Dance!" Really necessary? _"He did have it coming, he shot me, all I did was shoot _at _him then I hit him in the head and knocked him out. I at least made the cops' job easier."

_That you did. _"You know, for something that's part of my mind, you sure do try to set yourself apart from it." _It is why you created me. _"Hmmph, I guess so." _It's getting late, you should probably get to bed. _"What are you, my mother?" _No, but I am part of your mind, therefore it would be in your best interest to listen to me. _"You got me there." Madanach rose from his chair, he prepared himself for bed, he put his golf clubs on his weapon rack. _And really, invest in some more serious weapons. _"Nag me in the morning." he told the voice.

_ And maybe a less conspicuous outfit. _"I said "In the morning."" _Alright, fine then, goodnight my overpowered, purple lunatic. _"Goodnight, my annoying aspect of my consciousness." As Madanach drifted off to sleep, while he didn't dream every night, his dream would always be of that day. The day where it all went wrong, where he thought his power was too great for the good of himself and those around him.

In his dream, he'd always be at the exact point that it happened. His team was standing at the edge of a clearing in the Emerald Forest. He stood at the center, he deployed a glyph on the ground in front of him, he willed it to shoot a column of fire from it, the glyph complied. An intense pain shot through his body, the fiery glyph disappeared, he fell to the ground. His team rushed towards him. He felt sudden energy surge through him, his body began glowing yellow. "Stay back!" he wanted to yell to them, but his words failed him. They were almost to him when they finally noticed something was wrong, very wrong, they stopped in their tracks. The light around him was glowing more intensely, it was shimmering now. The light surrounding him shot out in all directions, Madanach's team was knocked to the ground, he himself lost consciousness.

Madanach awoke in a hospital bed, his vision cleared, he saw a very worried Summer sitting at his bedside. She saw he was awake and wrapped him in a bear hug. "Gah!.. Summer.. can't.. breathe.." His white-cloaked friend let go quickly, she rubbed the back of her head, embarrassed. "Sorry, I was just really worried, and I.. uh, are you okay?" Madanach laughed. "I'm fine, what happened anyway?" Summer raised an eyebrow. "You don't remember?" "I remember making a glyph shoot out fire, the rest is fuzzy." Summer nodded and gave him the recap, Madanach's expression turned solemn. "I am so sorry I dragged you and the others into that." "It's okay Hatchet, you had no way of knowing." "That's just it though, we should've been far more careful." He argued. "And we will in the future, for now, you just get your rest."

Professor Ozpin walked into the room, he had both his ever-present cane and coffee mug. "Madanach, you're awake, good, I've been meaning to speak with you." Ozpin looked at Summer. "Alone if now is a good time." "Of course sir." Summer said, she turned to Madanach and gave him a reassuring nod before walking out. Ozpin sat in the chair next to Madanach's bed. "Professor, I'm really sorry about the incident." Madanach said sincerely. "Spare me the apologies, I came here to ask you a few questions." Ozpin said, he took a sip from his coffee mug. "Alright."

"You were able to at least combine some of the semblances at your disposal, correct?" "Yes, I was able to use my shadow and invisibility at the same time, as well as fire and speed." "But when you combined fire with a glyph, that caused you to collapse?" "Yes sir." Ozpin adjusted his glasses. "And I also started to glow and that caused some sort of major energy release, I think." "Based on reports, that wasn't your aura, yours isn't yellow." "Yes, I don't know what exactly that was." "I see, tell me, have you had any more headaches since we last talked about your semblance?"

"No, generally I get a headache each time I copy a semblance, I haven't copied anymore since, even with the new exchange students." "You think you've obtained them all?" Madanach nodded. "Well, at least the majority of them." Ozpin nodded. "Is there something else troubling you?" "I'm not sure if you'll approve." Ozpin leaned back in his chair. "Nobody approved of your little field test, and yet you still went through with it." Madanach was silent. "I think I should leave." Ozpin raised an eyebrow. "Why is that?"

"I don't think I can control it." Madanach said. "But you've made it this far without incident." "Yes, but I didn't know so much until recently. For years, I've needed to concentrate to use semblances. Now, it requires little more than a thought." Ozpin set his coffee mug down. "So you think you'll make a mistake in battle that will result in the death of those around you?" Madanach nodded.

Madanach awoke to the sound of banging on his door. "HATCHET, OPEN UP RIGHT NOW!" A gruff voice called from the other side of the door. _Oh boy, here we go. _"Oh well, let's get this over with." Madanach said, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

He dashed around his room, hastily putting on his outfit. There was more banging on the door. "HATCHET!" "Just a second, I'm not quite decent." he called back. The door burst open, two men came in, both were wearing white tunics with black undershirts, black pants and grey boots. Their iron masks gave away their affiliation immediately, they were White Fang soldiers. One had goat horns growing out of his hood, the other had a bushy, orange tail. _White Fang? I didn't think you stole from them. _The two soldiers trained their guns on Madanach.

"Where did you people learn your manners from?" He said to the soldiers, nonchalantly. "You know you could've at least been a little bit patient, I didn't even get to have my morning tea." Madanach said, annoyed. He finished buttoning up his fuchsia shirt. "A few seconds earlier and you'd've caught me with my pants around my ankles." "Cut the crap, Hatchet, give up the merchandise and we won't have to put a bullet in your head." The fox faunus said."Hmmph, I'd think one case of crystals wouldn't be paid any mind by you lot." The fox faunus's tail twitched. "You also disrupted our little operation a couple days ago, that put you at the top of our boss's hit list." Madanach found his bow tie and wrapped it around his neck.

"Didn't know I made such an impression, but seeing that you know what I'm capable of, there's no way he'd only send just a couple of grunts like you here." He looked down to see a red dot dancing around his chest. He looked out his window to see a sniper on the roof of an adjacent building. "Ah, good to see he isn't that stupid." Madanach grabbed his top hat off of it's hanger, he dusted it off and threw it at the men, a circular blade shot out of the brim of it. It sliced clean through the guns the men were holding, he willed the hat back to him and set it on his head.

"But it seems he isn't that smart either." He dashed towards them, Fore shot out from his sleeve. He swung in a wide arc, slamming the club right into both of their heads. The men crumpled to the floor. Madanach grabbed his purple tailcoat and bolted down the hallway towards the stairwell. Madanach noticed the numerous bullet holes in the walls from the sniper.

He reached the stairwell, the other soldiers were a flight below him, he put a glyph in front of the lead man, causing him to slam into it and fall into the others, causing a domino effect among them. Madanach ran up the stairs, snickering. A roar of frustration came from below, probably from the poor guy who slammed into his glyph. _Could you at least try to be serious about your life being in danger? _"Heh, against these guys? Where's the danger?"

He burst through the door to the roof, the sniper spotted him, Madanach magnetized the rifle and yanked it from the man's grip, the rifle fell to the street below. He ran for the opposite edge of the rooftop and turned towards the stairwell. The soldiers filed out, only to watch Madanach salute them before he jumped off the building. Madanach hit the ground and ran down the alleyway. _You could've taken them. _The voice said. _"_Yeah, well, I really don't think I'll be able to come up with a story for the police this time. May as well put some distance between me and the scene."He told it.

An armored van pulled up and blocked the exit of the alleyway. Another White Fang goon on a turret appeared from the roof of the vehicle, he took aim at Madanach. _Now can you be serious?_ "Oh, for god's sake!" Madanach complained. He put a glyph between him and the hail of gunfire, he put an anti- gravity one beneath his feet and shot up into the air. He made another glyph behind him and shot towards the man on the turret. He whacked the trigger-happy goon in the head with Fore as he passed over him, effectively knocking him out. Madanach bolted down the street. The driver of the van hopped out, he took aim at Madanach, who turned and shot a bolt of lightning from his hand. It struck the driver in the chest, he fell to the ground.

_Uh, did you just.. _"He's fine, his aura kept him from dying. If you'd pay attention, you'd remember I have a life detection semblance." _Just checking._ "Hey, since you don't like knowing my mind, how about try knowing what my mind doesn't know and be helpful for once." _Okay, we've got five guys on our six. _Madanach turned his head, the voice was right. _We'll talk about it later. _Bullets whizzed past his head. Madanach took evasive action, using his speed to move from one side of the street to the next in a purple flurry.

He ducked behind a corner of an antique store and slid Fore back into his sleeve. Frost formed in Madanach's palms, a white fog rolled off of his hands. He leapt from his cover, and multiple icicles the size of railroad spikes shot from his palms into the squad. Luckily for them he didn't go for vital areas, the spikes passed clean through their auras as well as through their arms and legs. The men fell to the ground in agony, Madanach used the window to further evade his pursuers. _Think that's the last of them?_

"Dunno, but I think I'll keep running, regardless." Madanach made it a block before running into more trouble. A tall man with red and brown hair appeared from the alleyway. He wore an almost entirely black outfit, his trench coat had some red, flame-like accents at the sides. His mask resembled those of the other White Fang members, but it was white with some red designs on it. Two horns were barely sticking above his spiky red and brown hair. _You might wanna be a bit careful with this guy, your aura is at half capacity._ Fore extended into Madanach's hand, he held it as if it were a rapier, pointing it at the man. "En garde, mon ennemi."

The faunus said nothing, he unsheathed his crimson blade and charged Madanach. Their weapons clashed, both men tried to land a blow on the other, but each swing only met the metal of the other's weapon. The man swung his sword in a flurry of motions, Madanach's defense held until the black-clad man grabbed his sheath. _Wait, is that a rifle?_ The round fired from the man's side struck Madanach in the chest, his aura held, but he was sent flying through the air. He landed hard on the ground.

_Okay, If that's how we'll play it, bring it on. _Madanach thought. Madanach jumped up, the man charged him, he'd sheathed his weapon, but still grasped the hilt. He leapt at Madanach and unsheathed his sword mid-air, attempting to bring his blade down on Madanach. Madanach side stepped quickly to avoid the blade. He shot a lightning bolt from his hand, it struck the man in the ribs, the bolt stunned him. . Madanach put some distance between himself and his opponent, he adjusted the slider on Fore so the weapon glowed yellow. Now it was his turn to go on the offensive.

The faunus must've had experience against dust weapons. He was dodging, rather than blocking Madanach's attacks, knowing that his sword would be sent into the next zip code if it collided with Fore. Madanach noticed his plan wasn't working, so he moved the slider to the fire setting. Madanach pointed Fore at the man, a large fireball shot from it. He dodged the fireball's path, but it was in vain, the ball exploded mid-air, the force sent him flying into the wall of a building. The faunus stood, shakily, small flames clung to his hair, he quickly patted them out.

He sheathed his blade once again and waited for Madanach to attack. Madanach set Fore back into its neutral position. A flame appeared in his palm. "Plenty more where that came from." He taunted. Madanach shot another fireball at his foe. The faunus partially unsheathed his sword and raised it as if to block the attack. The fireball did not explode on impact, it was absorbed into the blade. All of the red that was visible on the man now glowed. _Oh, so that's his semblance. _The voice said. _Thanks, didn't notice that. _Madanach replied, sarcastically.

The glowing faunus charged Madanach and slashed at him, the sword itself missed by inches, the energy inside of it was released and sent right into Madanach. The impact sent him sprawling along the pavement Fore was flung from his grip. _So that's why he uses laido style fighting. _Madanach looked at his hands, they were scratched up and the knuckles were bleeding. _Uh oh._ Madanach tried to stand, but was kicked in the ribs, knocking the wind out of him. The faunus put his boot firmly on Madanach's chest, and held his sword to Madanach's throat.

"Look at that, your aura's drained, Mr. Hatchet." "I- noticed." Madanach said, gasping for breath. "You caused a lot of trouble for us, but now I can see why they want you now, using more than one semblance isn't exactly a common thing." The man said, smiling cruelly. A battle cry came from behind the faunus, he turned and a white shield slammed right into his face. The faunus fell to the ground, his nose began bleeding, heavily. Madanach laughed. "Oh look, my aura isn't the only one drained now." The faunus cursed at him.

Madanach looked at his savior, a young man, no older than twenty with messy blond hair and blue eyes. He wore a white chest plate, as well as shoulder and elbow armor over a black, long-sleeved jacket. His blue jeans and black sneakers seemed a bit worn. The knight kicked the faunus' sword and rifle away. He put large handcuffs on the faunus' wrist. Madanach stood and retrieved Fore, it retracted back into his sleeve. "Pyrrha, Mister Taurus is now in our possession." The blond spoke into his earpiece, he pulled a scroll from his jacket pocket. "Yes, I'm giving you the coordinates now."

His shield collapsed into a sheathe, he put it at his side, he kept the tip of his sword pointed at Taurus. "Thanks for the help." Madanach said to the knight. "No problem, but I think I should be thanking you. After all, you helped me catch this guy." The blond said. The faunus growled at him. "So, you're a hunter?" Madanach asked. "You could say that,you?" Madanach smiled."Similar occupation." A black van pulled up, a red haired woman in the driver's seat honked the horn, getting the blond's attention. He walked to the back of the van and shoved Taurus in. He looked at Madanach. "We were never here." He told Madanach. He nodded in understanding, and the man got in the van and it drove off.

Madanach walked aimlessly down the streets, eventually ending up in a more isolated area. "Now, tell me how did you know those men were behind us?" He asked the voice. _Madanach, your semblance goes much further than just copying them, your aura had to compensate for them. _"Are you saying my aura does not have a specific capacity?" _Yes, each time you took in a semblance, your aura grew. It eventually grew to a size too large for both your mind and body to handle. Remember a few years back, when you were having night terrors and you were losing control of your motor functions? _"Yes." _That was a side effect of having all of those semblances, so it split itself up, creating-. _

A small blue light appeared in front of Madanach. The light began glowing so intensely, Madanach had to look away. The light faded, when Madanach looked back to where the light was, there was a pale, thin woman standing in front of him. She was slightly shorter than Madanach, her brown hair tumbled down to her shoulders. She wore a dark blue, strapless dress that came down just below her knees. She turned to face Madanach, her eyes were electric blue, much like Madanach's except hers were glowing. "-me." she told him.

* * *

En garde mon ennemi (French): warning my foe


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: **Yes, yes, sorry it took forever, this chapter went about eleven different ways and I got distracted, so here you go.

* * *

Madanach repeatedly poked the woman on the arm. She was solid, but didn't quite feel like another person not as, well, squishy. "Uh, Madanach, you can stop that now." she said. Madanach's smiled nervously. "Uh, right, sorry about that, it's just, how did we never bump into each other?" He asked, still surprised at what just happened. The woman chuckled. "I don't have a real body, can choose to be solid or not, though this form seems to take less energy. Also, sorry to just drop the bomb on you like that, not everyday you find out part of your subconscious was actually another person, I'd expect you to be a bit confused."

"Confused, yes, and just a little angry." Madanach said, the woman shrugged."I understand why you'd be upset, but I did pose as that to help you." Madanach laughed. "To help me? I was almost dragged off to the loony bin because of you, people were always saying I "was always talking to a voice in my head." Then BAM, one day the guys in hospital getups with a needle show up and crap hits the fan. Then we're forced to move to the other side of the city. You know I loved that Mistral cuisine restaurant across the street." Madanach complained.

"Hey, I didn't tell you to talk to me out loud all the time, and you know what I meant by helping you, or has that memory seem to have slipped your mind?" She asked.

* * *

Madanach walked in the wilds of Atlas, about to stroll right into a mass of Grimm. He didn't care, he'd left everything he knew behind, he'd been responsible for the death of his old friend, Summer Rose. Lydia D'lionne, another former teammate and old friend had gone missing weeks before Summer's death.

Long before the incidents, Madanach had always felt the guilt of leaving, he'd grown close with those few around him. He knew he'd hurt them, leaving without so much as a goodbye. He didn't want to be responsible for their deaths because of his own folly. He knew how it could affect people, and he didn't want to do that to others, or himself._ Lotta good that did. _He thought.

After he learned of her death, Madanach's dreams had been filled with the images of the broken body of Summer, sometimes Lydia. Their deaths were different every time, stabbed, shot, mauled, burned, etcetera. Each time, the end result was the same, waking up, sweating, occasionally crying out for them. Eventually, a voice came, accusing him of being responsible for Summer's death and Lydia's disappearance. More and more voices would follow, each arguing against one another. As the voices kept bickering at one another, Madanach fell apart almost entirely.

Just before Madanach could enter the lair of the Grimm, a new voice came. _Stop. _It said, Madanach continued regardless of it's command. _You don't want to do this. _It continued. _Why? _Madanach asked. _Because, you have a lot to live for, those voices, you can get rid of them, you can move on with your life. You can make up for past mistakes, people have done far worse than you have rebounded. _It told him. _No, it's too much, I can't take anymore they won't leave me alone. _He said. _You can fight them, silence them, you just-._

"I tried!" Madanach yelled at the voice. "I tried to forget, to move on, yes I know I've done a lot of good in this world, for god's sake! The problem is, they won't let me forget it all!" Madanach fell to his knees, tears welling in his eyes._ Then let me help you, the others are only interested in their debate. I want to help you get through this, give me a week, just a week, if there's no progress, then do what you wish. _It contemplated this for a while, he stood. "Okay, one week." Madanach walked towards home, the memory faded.

* * *

"No it did not." Madanach told her. "Why did you think you had to pose like that?" "You gave me a week. Planting the idea in your mind was most quickly done with you thinking the idea was coming from your mind." she said. "How did you communicate like with me like that?" Madanach asked. "Telepathy, even though our souls were divided, I've still retained some mental connection to you. We can communicate without speaking verbally." The woman stated.

"What about the voices?" "When your aura separated, I took some of your semblances, including a protective one, I focused it on those specific parts of your mind. Recently, the voices have quieted down, so I've had to use less of my aura to protect you. In fact, lately you've been the one to stave them off."

Madanach raised an eyebrow. "You took some of my semblances and my aura capacity, why have I been able to use them all?" "That part is just a little bit tricky, I use them for you. I can temporarily infuse my soul with your body, the time is short so it does no harm to you. When I do that, I can know what semblance you want to use and when you want to use it. After that, I use the semblance myself."

"So which semblances did you take with you?" Madanach asked. "Not as many as you'd think, as far as I know, I took healing, mimicry, tranquility, light, telekinesis, and weapon summoning." She said. "Ooh, weapon summoning. I never tried that one, can I see it?" Madanach requested.

The woman extended her arm, a green light floated in her palm. It extended and formed a scimitar, it floated just above her palm. The sword was green, translucent, and had a faint glow to it. She took hold of the hilt. "Okay, that's actually pretty cool." Madanach commented. "Yeah it is, I can't make any guns though, I can make all types melee weapons and bows. Plus, it doesn't feed on my aura to keep the weapon, but my aura can't be at full strength until I break the connection."

Madanach tapped the blade with his finger. "So, do you know what you're doing with these things?" Madanach asked. "Yes, while you'd sleep, I go out and study, I have been for years. You see since I don't have a real body I don't need to rest." She said. Madanach nodded. "So those nights where I'd wake up to the sound of something breaking, like maybe a few plates that were knocked over on to the floor…" He didn't bother finishing the thought, he already saw the embarrassment on her face.

"Sorry." she said, meekly. The scimitar in her hand shattered like glass, the green shards dissipated before they hit the ground. "You know, we don't even have a name for you yet." Madanach pointed out. The woman smiled. "You mean _you_ don't know my name, it's Vox by the way." Madanach grinned. "I like it, short, sweet, rolls off the tongue." Vox laughed. "That it does."

There was a long silence between them. "So, after hearing all of this, are you okay?" Madanach nodded. "Of course I… Wait a minute, we've had conversations while I was in the shower." He said. "I was on the other side of the door." Vox claimed. "You're a terrible liar, I've talked at normal volume while in there." If Vox could blush, her face would be crimson. "I- I didn't peek, I swear!" she stammered. Madanach smiled, slyly. "I'm sure you didn't." "It's not funny." She said. "It is if you could see your face right now…" He said still trying to restrain his laughter.

"Ugh. You are so insufferable!" "I'm sorry, really I am." He claimed, unconvincingly so. Vox crossed her arms. "Fine, do you have any other questions?" "Okay, can you change your form, as in look like another person?" he asked. "No, but I can change what I wear." She demonstrated by changing from her dress into a turquoise jacket, jeans, a pair of black sneakers, and a cyan beanie. The jacket had a pair of angel wings with a halo floating above the middle of them. An identical emblem was on the beanie. "Brilliant." Madanach said.

"Yes I am." Vox said with a smile. "You may want to stay like that." Madanach suggested. "Why?" "Because, it's Atlas, northernmost kingdom. It's uh…" Madanach looked at a thermometer on his scroll. Well, some unfortunate gangster's scroll that Madanach relieved him of. "Forty-eight degrees right now. Running around in that dress would seem a bit odd." He stated. "I've been running around like this forever, though." Vox complained. "And you never once got a sideways glance from anyone?" He asked. "Well, now that you mention it, I do get quite a few."

"Exactly, welcome to How-to-be-Human 101, Vox, I'm Professor Hatchet and today we'll cover the basics." He joked. "Hey, I've got the basics down, "Professor Hatchet"." She said, making the finger quotes. "Right, except how to dress appropriately for the weather." "Hey, I can sense when something touches me, but as for temperature, I can't feel that." Vox explained. "Then look at what other people are wearing, if they're wearing shorts, and t-shirts, it's probably warm." He told her.

"Alright I get it. You know, you can't say anything on how I should dress, Purple Hat McGee." She pulled his top hat over his eyes. "Hey, at least my outfit is…" Madanach adjusted his top hat so it wasn't obscuring his vision, Vox had changed her outfit so it matched his. "Really?" "What? do I look ridiculous?" she asked, playfully. "Yes, yes you do, and that's my job." he said. "What would be my job then?" she asked, she put on a pair of purple-tinted aviators.

"I don't know, generally walking around in my head helping with annoying things that buzz around in there, now I've no idea." he said, pondering. "Running low on money?" she asked. "Actually, yes." "We could see what our friends in the upper class are up to." she suggested, Madanach grinned ."That sounds fantastic, I like you in this form." Her expression mirrored his. "636 Moonlight drive, think they've got any new security there?" "You know Mister "

"By the way, you aren't keeping that, are you?" he gestured to her outfit. "No, that was just to have my fun." She changed the purple suit to a black, open trench coat over a red sweater, jeans, shin-high black boots, and a maroon scarf. "You look good." Madanach commented. "Thanks, I try my best." They began walking to their objective, Madanach pondered his current situation and things to come with his formerly mental companion.

"You okay?" she asked. "Yes, just a bit weirded out still, I guess." he said. "I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't have kept myself a secret for so long, it's just…" she trailed off, not really finding a rational reason. "You were afraid of how I'd react to it, thinking that I wouldn't take it so well?" he said, helpfully. "Yeah, pretty much." she said, somewhat shamefully. Madanach smiled. "Well, personally, I'm glad that you revealed yourself, having a living person here will make things much more interesting."


	4. Chapter 4

Pyrrha drove the van back towards their hideout. Jaune sat in the back with their captive. Adam struggled in his handcuffs. "Don't bother," Jaune said. "they drain your aura to where you can't do much so I'd save what energy it has left." Pyrrha glanced back at them through the mirror.

"Why didn't you call for me sooner? I would've helped." Pyrrha asked. "Well, whenever I found him, he was already pretty much taken care of." Jaune said. "By the guy in the purple hat?" "Yeah." Jaune looked at Adam. "Friend of yours?" Adam remained silent. Pyrrha put her finger up to her earpiece.

"We've got him, you guys can head back to the safehouse." she told everyone on the chat. Everyone confirmed they were on their way back. "Can I be the interrogator?" Nora asked. Pyrrha shook her head. "No Nora, sorry, maybe next time."

Jaune checked behind them again, this time things weren't so clear, two trucks were gaining on them, fast. The masked men were clearly White Fang. "Uh, Pyrrha, you might want to hurry us up. Like, right now." he said, slightly panicked. Pyrrha saw what he meant, she floored it. Their pursuers drew their weapons and took aim at their van. "Pyrrha! They have guns!"

"So do we, heads up!" she warned. Pyrrha extended Miló to rifle form and tossed it to Jaune. "I told you training with it would've been a good idea." she said. Jaune took aim at the truck's tires. Bullets riddled the back of the van, Jaune ducked, glass bits rained down on him. "Hold on!" Pyrrha shouted. "To wh-ahhhh!" Pyrrha took a sharp turn left, making Jaune slam his head into the side of the van's interior.

"Sorry!" she said. Jaune regained his balance and opened fire on the truck behind them. He blew out its front tire and it lost control, the truck flipped over and rolled. Jaune cringed at his handiwork, then noticed the other truck was still chasing them.

"Oh god!"Jaune ducked in cover as another barrage of bullets hit the van. Adam kicked Jaune in the ribs, he fell on his side and Adam continually stomped whatever Jaune couldn't defend, which wasn't much in his position.

Pyrrha saw the situation and grabbed Akoúo̱ from the passenger seat. She threw it at Adam's head, her shield hit it's mark, dazing him. Jaune collapsed Miló and struck Adam in the nose with the hilt of Miló, Adam crumpled to the floor, clutching his bleeding nose. Jaune silently thanked the inventor of those handcuffs._  
_

"Thanks Pyr!" More bullets hit the van a couple grazed the sleeve of Pyrrha's jacket. "What's with the police in this town, you'd think they'd do _something_!" Jaune exclaimed. "Get them off of us!" Pyrrha ordered.

Jaune set Miló back into rifle form. He picked up Akoúo̱, and used it to absorb some of the oncoming fire. He planned to take out the next truck in a similar fashion as the previous one. Easier said than done now that Pyrrha was driving like a madwoman, taking each and every turn she could find. Luckily there wasn't much traffic in Zhao Liang, or they'd've probably not made it this far.

After a painstaking work, he finally succeeded in blowing out one of its tires. It veered right, and slammed into a parked delivery truck. Its driver barely jumped out of the way in time.

"Good shooting Jaune, I didn't know you caught on that fast." Pyrrha said, a hint of pride in her voice. Jaune collapsed Miló into sword form and climbed into the front seat. "I had a good teacher." he said, Pyrrha smiled. "That you did." "And thanks for the help with that guy." "No thanks needed, we're partners, we watch each others' backs." she said.

"Good point." Jaune checked up on their prisoner, he was still out cold. "They sure went through a lot of trouble to try to get this guy back. I wonder what he knows." Jaune said. "I guess we'll find out, hopefully soon." "Don't like the cold, Pyr?" he asked. "There's that, then there's the fact that the White Fang are definitely preparing for another assault." Pyrrha said, grimly.

Jaune put his hand on her shoulder. "We'll get through this, hey if we beat that giant mech when we weren't even a full year in, we'll be ready for whatever else they throw at us." he said, confidently.

"I know, I'm not quite worried about us, it's them, those who can't fight. As hunters and huntresses, we're supposed to-" "Protect and defend the people of the four kingdoms, I know." Jaune said, sympathetically.

"We can't save them all, Pyr. We just gotta do what we can. Which is a lot for, you know, a little over twenty of us." he continued. "There should be more." Pyrrha said. "We can't spare that many. The Grimm are growing in numbers." he reminded her.

"They planned this, but how?" Pyrrha wondered. "Or it could just be a coincidence." Jaune reasoned. "Just think about it, not many hunters stand in their way. Border patrol demands are at an all time high, even students have to go out there, almost nothing stands in their way. It's all too much to be a mere coincidence."

"Well, then we'll have to be a little more careful." He said, Pyrrha huffed. "Well, we're not doing a very good job." They rode the rest of the way in silence. Pyrrha stopped the van outside of an old, two-story building. "We're here, would you be a gentleman and get the door, please?" she requested. Jaune smiled at the joke. "Of course, my dear." He got out and raised the garage door.

Pyrrha rolled the van in, everyone was waiting for them. Ren, Nora, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang. _Temporary home, sweet temporary home. _Jaune thought. While the safe house was inconspicuous, it could've been better. A few jaws dropped when they saw the condition of the van.

"We're fine, guys, don't worry." Jaune said. "Holy crap guys, did they even try to take Taurus back alive?" Yang asked. "Honestly, I'm not sure. Maybe we should see if he's alright." Jaune suggested. "I got him!" Nora said, hefting Adam on to her shoulder with ease. Despite Nora being smaller than most of their group, she was definitely the strongest. "Van's out of fuel, we won't be using it for a while." Pyrrha told everyone.

Blake studied her old partner intently, arms crossed. "You're gonna talk to him?" Yang asked her, slightly concerned for her partner. "I'm the only one who can, he'll not talk to anybody else." Blake said. "Even after what happened between you?"

"I'm sure, Yang." Blake said, somewhat anxiously. Nora restrained Adam in a chair, his head sagged forward limply. The blood from his nose reached his chin. "You guys should go rest up, I'll take it from here." Blake told them, nobody argued, they were all exhausted.

Once everyone was upstairs and out of earshot, Blake turned to face Adam. "You can cut the act now." she told him. Adam raised his head, slowly. "Blake, I see you ditched the bow." he said, coldly. Blake draped her duster over the back of her chair.

"Alright, what do you want to know?" she asked him. "I thought you were the one interrogating me." Adam said, confusedly. "You've waited long enough, I owe you this." she said. "Why did you leave?" he asked.

"You already know."

"When you were with me, with us, did you really think blood wouldn't be shed?"

Blake sighed. "I knew, I just didn't want it to be by us." There was a long silence between them. "There's no other option anymore, you know that." She shook her head. "That doesn't make it right."

Adam snarled. "Doesn't make it right? Was it right for them to treat us like garbage? To try to keep our race on some island never to be seen again?"

"It wasn't _you_, Adam. When the Fang changed, you did too, you became violent, sometimes towards me."

"I was tired of being treated poorly for what he looked like. I was tired of seeing friends and family abused by humans for the same reason. When the leadership changed, I was doing what needed to be done for a long time."

"You're not even fighting for them anymore." Blake said, almost too lowly for Adam to hear. "What do you mean?" "When Cinder and Torchwick began helping the Fang, did they tell you that they'd help you win rights for the Faunus?" she asked.

"That's about it." Adam confirmed. "Do you know how they're going to do it?" Blake inquired.

"Fear, obviously."

"That's their cover Adam. The truth is, they want to destroy everything that's been built. They want to see our destruction, humans _and_ faunus."

"That doesn't make any sense. Why would they want that?"

"You know how the Grimm want to kill us all, and they're represented as the darkness, whereas we're the light?" she asked. "Yes."

"That's not true for all of us, some souls have far more darkness than light, they want what the Grimm want. Sometimes they'll even kill just because they feel like it." she explained.

"That can't be true." "I've been going through a lot of the files, Adam. I've even seen some of them first hand. In fact, a lot of the deaths were on missions that would've went off without a hitch. There have been twenty this year around Vytal." Adam paled. "No, that's not right, there've only been a few." Blake shook her head. "The rest may have been covered up. One heist in Vacuo ended up with only Mercury returning. The two dead men were reported shot in the chest by a security guard, shotgun rounds. The dead security guard found there only had a pistol, I'm guessing that never showed up in the official report."

There was a long silence between them. "Who are all the traitors?" Adam asked. "Cinder, Roman, Mercury, Emerald, and The Lioness. From what we know." "I have to warn them, you have to let me go, now Blake." Adam pleaded. "Do you have any info we can use, we may even be able to save some of them if it happens again." "You'll let me go if I do?" "We can't keep you here anyway."

"They found Graupel Schnee, they're going after him tonight. 636 Moonlight Drive, kind of a big, white house." He said, quickly. Blake unsheathed Gambol Shroud and cut Adam's bonds, she fished a key out of her pocket and undid his handcuffs. Adam took Wilt and Blush and fitted them around his waist. "Thank you, Blake." She nodded. "Don't go after them Adam, not yet." she warned. "Noted." Adam walked out the door.

Blake took a deep breath before running upstairs. She burst through the door, everyone was still in their combat outfits. "Yang, Ruby, Weiss, we need to go now." She pointed at JNPR "You four stay here and keep an eye on the place. We'll call for backup if we need you." Blake ran back downstairs and threw on her duster, the rest of her team followed, hastily. "Where are we going?" Ruby asked. Blake looked at Weiss "636 Moonlight Drive."

Weiss's eyes widened. "What!?" she exclaimed. "God dammit, none of you fall behind, you hear me?" Weiss didn't wait for an answer, she rushed out the door and tore down the street, hoping they'd be in time.


End file.
